It is an overcast afternoon in Kenya’s capital city and two tailors are using sewing machines to join, hem and make beautiful, patterned bags – while on the walls in the workshop hang tote bags made from recycled jeans.<\/p>\n
This buzz of tailoring activity is taking place at Suave Studios, located on the second floor of a charming building painted white and blue in downtown Nairobi.<\/p>\n
Founded in 2013 by Mohamed Awale, Suave Studios has established itself as one of the most exciting brands in the city’s flourishing fashion scene.<\/p>\n
It takes discarded fabrics and turns them into items such as backpacks, messenger bags and smaller goods like wallets and passport holders.<\/p>\n
Awale draws inspiration from Gikomba, a huge, sprawling, open-air second-hand clothes market in Nairobi, the largest of its kind in East Africa.<\/p>\n
“The more bags we sell, the more waste we reduce,” he says.<\/p>\n
The tailors turn worn clothes like discarded jeans, leather jackets and suits imported from the US and Europe into affordable items for Nairobi’s hip students and young professionals.<\/p>\n
The designer says his business began in just one room on the current site, but since then has expanded.<\/p>\n
Awale even attracts business from corporate giants like Google and sells his products internationally.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, he was supported by the Ethical Fashion Initiative to study on a two-month fashion course in Florence, Italy specialising in bags and accessories.<\/p>\n
He learnt about bag design, the history of fashion and how to expand his business.<\/p>\n
This experience enabled Awale to elevate his vision and he has decided to relaunch his label in September as Rummage Studios with a new brand identity focused on global expansion.<\/p>\n
At the other end of the fashion scene in Nairobi is the ready-to-wear, high-end fashion label of designer and creative consultant Kepha Maina.<\/p>\n
He established his eponymous label in 2013, which he operates out of his home-cum-workshop in the centre of Nairobi.<\/p>\n
Maina is inspired by architecture, the human form and expressions of self-identity.<\/p>\n
A key influence was the mid-noughties craze for skinny jeans, popularised by British and American Indie music groups such as The Libertines and The Strokes.<\/p>\n
This sought-after style was not available in Kenya, so he took a DIY approach by customising and making the jeans out of second-hand clothes.<\/p>\n
His fashion borrows from the minimalist styles of iconic designers like Azzedine Alaia, Jill Sander and Japanese trailblazers Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto and Comme des Gar\u00e7ons.<\/p>\n
In particular Maina was inspired by visionary British designer Alexander McQueen, who he says “elevated” fashion “into art”.<\/p>\n
The late McQueen’s artistically dark fashion sensibility, with high-concept shows that enthralled audiences, had a profound impact on Maina.<\/p>\n
“McQueen opened my eyes that you can use fashion to make a statement,” Maina says.<\/p>\n
He also draws inspiration from visual artists in East Africa such as Ibrahim el-Salahi, the renowned Sudanese painter and leading modernist figure.<\/p>\n
Unlike the fashion Meccas of Paris and Milan, Nairobi does not follow seasons as the fashion scene is too small.<\/p>\n
Maina has so far shown four collections, and his next will launch in September.<\/p>\n
He says there is a slick, angular and modernist aesthetic to the Nairobi look, which sets it apart from Africa’s other fashion capitals like Lagos.<\/p>\n
The trouble for designers is that most affluent Kenyans are far more likely to purchase a Herm\u00e8s handbag or Gucci jacket, than buy high-end fashion by a Kenyan designer.<\/p>\n
Despite such challenges, Maina says that in the last few years there has been a noticeable increase in the number of designers, stylists and creatives active in Nairobi.<\/p>\n
Many of them are getting international attention – such as designer and creative director Sunny Dolat who has exhibited at London’s Somerset House and helped shape the Victoria & Albert Museum’s African fashion retrospective.<\/p>\n
Whether you are looking for an upcycled fashion item from the likes of Awale to the more high-fashion creations of Maina, it seems that there is a talented generation talent at helm, and Nairobi’s dynamic fashion scene is only getting started.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In our series of letters from African journalists, Ismail Einashe visits two designers offering distinct visions of Kenyan fashion today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":15803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,36],"tags":[7,37,38],"class_list":{"0":"post-15806","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fashion","8":"category-lifestyle","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-fashion","11":"tag-lifestyle"},"yoast_head":"\n